Northern Hemisphere August 2010

[krisderaeymaeker]

Flowering today in our rockgarden  :

Campanula barbata
Fuchsia magellanica nana   
Convolvulus compactus
Heterotheca jonesii

[Lesley Cox]

A super Convolvulus Kris. Not the easiest to grow I imagine?

[SusanS]

Love the photo of the Campanula.  I never knew they could be so hairy.

[Ragged Robin]

Is you rockery in full sun Kris?  Lovely photos and you've captured the character of C. barbata so well - in the second photo it is marvellously hairy 

[krisderaeymaeker]

A super Convolvulus Kris. Not the easiest to grow I imagine?

Thank you Lesley .Here in my garden they are not to difficult .This is a plant which is growing in a pot but I have other young plants growing well between the crevices in my tufa-garden.
I use a mix of course sand and grit to fill the crevices.
Also good to use are tufa-holes for the young compactus-seedlings.
Send you some pictures of my seedlings which are growing in the tufa-bed.In wintertime they are covered with covering material against rain.  
 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Is you rockery in full sun Kris?  Lovely photos and you've captured the character of C. barbata so well - in the second photo it is marvellously hairy 

Thank you Robin.Oh yes my rockgarden is in full sun. It is even a very hot garden in summer .I have a lack of shadow in my garden. Few square metres benefit from a bit of shadow.
I did see barbata in the wild in Austria .Since that moment I admired this Campanula.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Love the photo of the Campanula.  I never knew they could be so hairy.

Nice to hear.In the wild they even get more hairs Susan.

[Lesley Cox]

The seedlings look very strong and healthy Kris, and the pictures show well the kind of mixture they like to grow in.

[WimB]

Only Belgians posting pictures here this month! Is the rest of the Northern Hemisphere on holiday?

Here are some plants flowering here now:

Anemonopsis macrophylla
Lobelia cardinalis
Roscoea purpurea 'Red Gurkha' (it's red but if you compare it with the previous Lobelia, it's more of a washed out red)
Syneilsis palmata: nothing really special but it has a pleasant smell.

[David Nicholson]

Far too wet to get the camera out Wim.

As far as your Roscoea "Red Gurkah" is concerned have a look at Paul Cumbleton's last Wisley Log here
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Jul261280135744Log_14_of_2010.pdf

[WimB]

Far too wet to get the camera out Wim.

As far as your Roscoea "Red Gurkah" is concerned have a look at Paul Cumbleton's last Wisley Log here
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Jul261280135744Log_14_of_2010.pdf

All the rain you're having now is coming our way for tomorrow. Now it's a very nice 23°C and sunny.

Wisley's look a lot more red, don't they. Maybe it's because it's the first time flowering

[TheOnionMan]

Only Belgians posting pictures here this month! Is the rest of the Northern Hemisphere on holiday?

Here are some plants flowering here now:

Anemonopsis macrophylla
Lobelia cardinalis
Roscoea purpurea 'Red Gurkha' (it's red but if you compare it with the previous Lobelia, it's more of a washed out red)
Syneilsis palmata: nothing really special but it has a pleasant smell.

Heya Wim, planned on posting here a number of times (July, and now August) but things get ahead of me.  It has been so desperately hot and dry, that it "takes the luster off" many plants, some of them wilting terribly, even though I'm trying to keep up the watering.  Even some trees, Magnolia, Halesia, Cercidiphyllum, are being early-deciduous, yellowing, and shedding up to 50% of their foliage due to stress.  Finally had a 30-minute long downpour yesterday when thunderstorms rolled through, which helps a bit.  But even with all this heat and unending sunshine, there are plants that like such conditions, many Alliums flowering, aromatic Agastache, and the hardy Hibiscus; they luxuriate in the steamy weather.

Yesterday, my Anemonopsis macrophylla opened the first blooms, your plants and mine are synchronized!  I don't currently have any Lobelia cardinalis growing here, but I don't have to go far to find it growing natively along rivers.  I really admire Roscoea Red Gurkha.

I'm interested to see your Syneilesis palmata, I only grow S. aconitifolia... such fascinating plants, particularly for the spring foliage effect.  Mine flowered in early July, the flowers are as you say, nothing special, but they are very sweet scented, surprisingly so.

[Maggi Young]

McMark, those pix of your Syneilesis aconitifolia  flowers are lovely.... which reminds me that I haven't seen flowers on mine this year.... must check up on that!


Your weather and watering problems must be very trying.
I know Anne Speigel has spoken on her hot and humid conditions also...... very unlike our local conditions where, even with quite a bit of rainfall, the plants would like yet more.....
perhaps Forumists would be interested to read this thread of Mark's on the NARGS forum....
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=371.msg3637#msg3637   

[TheOnionMan]

Your weather and watering problems must be very trying.
I know Anne Speigel has spoken on her hot and humid conditions also...... very unlike our local conditions where, even with quite a bit of rainfall, the plants would like yet more.....
perhaps Forumists would be interested to read this thread of Mark's on the NARGS forum....
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=371.msg3637#msg3637   

Moments ago, I received an automated phone call from Town officials, changing our every-other-day water ban to a 100% water ban with fines imposed for anyone caught watering.  Think I'm going to start boning up on my Indian (Native American) rain chant skills.

[WimB]

Your weather and watering problems must be very trying.
I know Anne Speigel has spoken on her hot and humid conditions also...... very unlike our local conditions where, even with quite a bit of rainfall, the plants would like yet more.....
perhaps Forumists would be interested to read this thread of Mark's on the NARGS forum....
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=371.msg3637#msg3637   

Moments ago, I received an automated phone call from Town officials, changing our every-other-day water ban to a 100% water ban with fines imposed for anyone caught watering.  Think I'm going to start boning up on my Indian (Native American) rain chant skills.

Wow, that's tough.
Does that mean you can not use collected rainwater for that either (Assuming you would still have rainwater).
Never heard of a water ban here in Belgium...never heard of a real water shortage here either.
I hope that you won't have to many casualties in the garden..